Tuesday, May 8, 2012

“How would you useReal English website with 1st grade students-intermediate school in Yanbu”

First of all, what is a Real English website?

It is a completely free site for learning English. Original videos & interactive lessons, an English teacher always present to help you, and a Community of teachers & students learning together.

It provides lots of lessons, videos, exercise about so many topics. It's a great website for using it to teach students English how to use this website ?

1 - Watch the video without subtitles.

2 - Do all the Exercises.

3 - Come back to this page. 4 - Watch the video with English Subtitles.

How to use this website with 1st grade students-intermediate school in Yanbu”

I believe that we need technology in teaching students new languages but we have not to forget the text book. I'm going to do the steps that i have mentioned above with the students. The videos must be about the topic that we are going to discuses in the class. We are going to watch the video together without subtitles. Then we are going to discuss it and solve all the exercises . after we finish, we'll come back to the video and watch it with subtitles.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

The role of WebQuests in learning a foreign/second language

The originator of this format for web based lessons, Dr. Bernie Dodge, says that a WebQuest is .".. an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. It's really a good thing to use webQuest in language teaching. The use of WebQuest will improve the students' critical thinking. Webquest reqiur the student to depend on themselves and to use their thinking abilities. The students have to ask, contrast,make decisions and recommendations. when the students use WebQuest, they will learn how to search effectively, evaluate what they find, and put it to use. And i think Students are enthusiastic about learning through webQuests. They will get the information from the material available on webQuest & they are not available on their text book. webquest make the student responsible of his learning. Web-quests can also used for project-based learning. A teacher can create a web-quest for final project. Web-quests can be used for individual and collaborative work. students will have internalized many of the cognitive strategies built into WebQuests, so that students direct and guide their own studies and findings. It's a great idea to use WebQuest with English foreign learners but i'm not sure that i will use it. we still have limitation of technology in our schools. Our schools still don't have network connection & some schools don't even have enough computers.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Website Evaluation This website http://esl.about.com/b/ is about learning English as a second language. The author of this website is Kenneth Beare. Kenneth has taught general English and English for Specific Purposes in Germany, New York, and Italy. He has developed numerous multi-media ESL courses for clients in Italy, England, Canada and the USA. he also knows what it means to learn a new language in order to adjust to a different culture.His education: Kenneth obtained degrees in the USA and Germany. He also received his Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) diploma from Trinity College in London.The accuracy of this website is excellent. The Facts are correct. No spelling or grammatical errors. The objectivity of this site is very good. The author present a limited perspective on the topics. The language he used is simple and easy to understand. His arguments based on reasons not on his emotions. The links which are lead to other websites are easy to read, they work and support the author’s claims. The graphics are good. the page and graphics load quickly. The graphics fit the theme and purpose of the page. The text size and the style are excellent. The colors are clear and appropriate for the purpose of this website. The only negative point which we found that: the homepage has a long list and themes and so many related notes and blogs on the right side of the page that could distract the reader and confuse him . Its really good and useful website to use it with the students. It will help them to learn or improve their English language. This site http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/wordgames.htm is for kids who are learning English as a foreign or second language. its logo is “the place for fun learning “. It provide good learning on a fun way that attracts young learners and keep them interested . There is a small introduction that explain and clarify each thing the site provides. It offers to the learners on line activities and hundreds of printable worksheets. It also has games, quizzes, songs and resources for parents and teachers. The interface and design are wonderful for kids, it has nice images and icons that fits the themes.The text is well organized ,clear and easy to read . The background color is light and comfortable to the sight so every thing is clear and easy to see and read . The links are well organized in the links area, easy to found and work correctly. Based on all of the above, we think that this website will be a good use for young students that expose them to English with the help and guide of their teacher, because it seems a little difficult for children to use it by their own.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Digital Natives are people who have grown up in the digital world using technology as a way to communicate, record, educate, and understand society. Today's tweens and teens are digital natives as they have had access to computers, cell phones, email, and other forms of technology since birth. Digital Natives speak the language of technology and are as comfortable with technology as past generations have been with pen and paper.

Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multitask. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work.

In contrast, those not born in the digital world reveal their non-native status through a "digital immigrant accent" that manifests itself in a number of ways—printing out a digital document to edit it rather than editing it online , they also show their students in class to see an interesting website rather than just sending them the URL because they might not know how to send it via email.

According to Prensky, digital immigrants are attempting to teach the digital natives with methods that are no longer valid; the only choice may be for educators to change the way they teach. "Unfortunately," he says, "no matter how much the Immigrants may wish it, it is highly unlikely the Digital Natives will go backwards. In the first place, it may be impossible? their brains may already be different"

The solution Prensky proposes is for today's teachers to learn the language of the natives, to speed up instruction, and to provide "random access. Prensky argues for a new way of looking at educational content as well. A category that he calls "legacy content" consists of traditional subjects such as reading, writing, and logical thinking; "future content" is "digital and technological," including such subjects as "software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology and genomics" as well as the "ethics, politics, sociology, languages, and other things that go with them"

According to Prensky, hat is the biggest serious problem facing education today because our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.

So if Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change. It‟s high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, “Just do it!” They will succeed in the long run – and their successes will come that much sooner if their administrators support them

is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks.

i can used delicious to ask students to bookmark games and activity that may help them in learning English as a foreign language.

How to use social bookmarking in the classroom?

• Network with other educators, share resources about teaching

• Collaborative student research projects

• Social bookmarking = 21st century researching skill

• Emphasize unintended learning and discovery through other students' bookmarks

Blog:

Like Podcast, wiki and other types of new technology, blogs can be use in classroom environment for diary entry; it also can be a useful tool to link communication between study groups within a class or other classes or even schools. If use effectively, blogs can create a learning environment that extend beyond the schoolyard

Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom.

is a perfect source for sharing information. Wiki gives EFL students to add and discuss whatever information they learned. It also gives them the chance to edit or remove anything that seems to be wrong or need editing for them.

Ways to Use Wikis in Education

Easily create simple Web sites. Anyone can do it...really.

Project development with peer review. Everyone has written a paper and reread it so many times that they couldn't see a glaring error right in front of their face and your friend points it right out. Multiply that by a million, and you get a big improvement.

Group authoring. Tired of emailing word processor files back and forth and trying to figure out who has the latest copy? Leave it in one place where your changes are instantly seen by everyone.

Track a group project. Can't meet in person because of conflicting schedules? Post your discussions on your group wiki. You do meet together but you forget what everyone promised to do after the meeting? Have a scribe enter action items right into the wiki during the meeting.

Data collection. Make the computer do the work for you.

Review classes and teachers. Publish your experience in a class so other students can make a better decision about whether to take that class.

Collaborative curriculum design/course content authoring. Anything that requires collaboration can be done through a wiki.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Stephan
Bax argues that, "Our aim should be to attain a state of `normalization'
in which the technology is invisible and truly integrated"

This article oﬀers a critical examination and reassessment of the history of CALL ( Computer Assisted Language learning ), an argues for three new categories—Restricted, Open and Integrated CALL . It is suggested that we are currently using the second approach, Open CALL, but that our aim should be to attain a state of ‘ normalization’ in which the technology is invisible and truly integrated . This article seeks answers to three questions: where has Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) been, where is it now and where is it going

Warschauer and Healey famously identiﬁes three phases of CALL which he terms ‘Behaviouristic’’,

‘‘Communicative’’ and ‘‘Integrative

where is CALL going? Integrated CALL and normalization

Bax sees that the goal of CALL is the clearest way of

deﬁning this goal is through the concept of ‘ normalization

concept is relevant to any kind of technological innovation and refers to the stage

when the technology becomes invisible, embedded in everyday practice and hence

‘normalised’.

CALL will reach normalized state when computers (probably very diﬀerent in shape and

size from their current manifestations) are used every day by language students an

teachers as an integral part of every lesson, like a pen or a book

In Saudi Arabia we dont use technology alot for teaching in schools .teachers use the traditional way in teaching but we use technology more in colleges .

With the increasing presence of technology in our classrooms, and the comfort of students using technology, it is important for faculty to understand the pedagogical implications of integrating technology into their classrooms It is important to provide a model classroom for faculty to see best practices exemplified, and observe how the various technologies can be integrated in teaching and learning. Faculty development efforts and programs must focus on the integration of technology into teaching . Instructional or educational technology should be “integral to teaching practice” and not viewed as an add-on to teaching.

Instructional technology can influence and improve learning . These types of technologies can improve teaching and learning by increasing teacher and student efficiency and reaching different learning styles .Through increased exposure to and competence with technology, faculty can select those technologies that improve “the quality of teaching and learning [and] student motivation